Topic

proposals

A collection of 113 issues

Orwell Clarity

Arh. Those were the days. Slaving over a Proposal the size of a phone book. Crafting a bespoke five page letter to qualify a new prospect. Nowadays ‘message exchange’ can be remarkably abrupt. I’m not advocating a return to the old days. Replete with physical folders half-a-forest full of

Harvard MBA B-Plan Judge Tips

I occasionally blog on the murky world of business plans for two main reasons. I often get paid to help write them so have live exposure to their vagaries and I think many a pitch or proposal (especially a brand new product one) can benefit from lessons learned in this

Your Proposal Yes Page

I did chuckle when I saw this. One of the 37 signals guys came across this terrific attempt by a toll-booth operator to make their life easier [http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2799-how-an-illinois-rest-stop-inspired-a-web-page#extended] . They simply typed up 18 questions. They must have been driven bananas by hearing them so

Elance Prop Tips

I knew Elance a few years ago as a go-to place for getting a bit of cheeky code cut. Revisiting for a potential piece of database replication, my guys alerted me to its evolution. Now, it’s reached being a $300m portal for all sorts of freelance activity. Unfortunately, this

Crafting A Presentation

As my recent blogs have described, I’m in the middle of prepping a big presentation at the moment. I had a discussion the other day about how you construct such an event. There are many common errors that you can avoid. A major one is structural. In our case

World Cup Host Bids

The Machiavellian world of sport geopolitics dealt a harsh lesson through England’s shattered 2018 World Cup hosting hopes on Thursday. It’s not about the bid. You can write the best Proposal document. You can deliver the most “remarkable” presentation. Yet you can still lose your ‘sale’. One particular

Tech-heads un-Cloud tips

One of my coders enthused about something he called Digg Reel the other day. (There’s a handful on vimeo [http://vimeo.com/digg] by way of example). It’s a collection of video snippets where those at the helm of the technocracy share their wisdom. I was helpfully informed

Main Gate Decisions

Are there any procurement decisions more complex and costly than within military circles? The UK Government this week suggested it’s considering deferring Britain’s £20bn ‘Trident’ nuclear submarine replacement project from 2014 to 2015, for both political and pecuniary ends. As a result of the significant local media coverage,

Curbing Wastrels

There’s a big difference between spending money, and wasting it. How often do you discuss a prospect’s previous investments with a buyer? Hopefully they’ll be able to trot out a long list of wonderful projects that helped make both a ton of cash and everyone’s lives

Talk With Sensitivity

Demonstrations of definitive thinking can enrage me when it comes to presenting figures. My recent work helping to craft business plans reminds me that the kinds of projected costs and revenues they deduce ought not be presented as absolutes. This also holds true for their sibling data, any sales proposal’